Modeling misery: A 3D tour of homeless camps in Super Bowl city

The folks at Matterport are heroes in my book. To show off their 3-D visualization technology, they could have done a snazzy VR walkthrough of the latest upscale strip mall, or an obnoxious Yuppie’s duplex apartment. Instead, they took their cameras into the darkest corner of human despair – situated directly outside the ultimate temple of societal hubris – The Super Bowl.

“It’s a reality that doesn’t jive with the picture of San Francisco as a bastion of creative and technological entrepreneurship. If society is getting better because of technology, why is homelessness so intractable on the doorstep of Silicon Valley?

…3D technology is making it possible to simulate reality in astounding ways. That could make it easier for people to edit their impression of the world, avoiding things that make them feel uncomfortable. Or it could do the opposite, bringing the uncomfortable realities front and center.”